Thursday, June 05, 2008

Living in France, particularly in the south, has tended to reinforce the impression that smacking is not an old-fashioned and unenlightened activity at all. Indeed a number of mythologies one absorbed in New Zealand have dissolved. The French are not arrogant, they are not bad drivers and the children are not cheeky.

Nevertheless, it was surprising to discover from a visiting Paris journalist that a significant majority of French adolescents valued obedience to parents above independence in a recent European survey. I have also discovered that 70 per cent of French children think that la fessee (French for a smack on the bottom) is fine.

And smacking young children in France doesn't seem to be a generational thing either. Ten years ago 85 per cent of parents thought smacking normal but a more recent survey put the figure at 87 per cent.

For European anti-smackers all this is something of an enigma. France, the country that gave us the Enlightenment, they argue, is being regressive. It is quite simply old-fashioned.

But the facts do not bear this out; children, one could reasonably argue, are treated better in France than any other European nation. France at 2.1 has the highest fertility rate of all the West European countries; only Sweden equals that.

And then there are the government incentives; Three year paid parental leave with guaranteed job protection. Subsidised day care for the first two years of a child's life.

Universal full-time preschool at age 3. Monthly child-care allowance which increases with the birth of each child plus a grant for a third child of $2000. Subsidised nanny care.

France spends about 15 per cent of its total budget on family and child services.

French women are not only more productive than their European counterparts but they also have higher rates of employment than most other European countries. Seventy-four per cent of women between 25 and 54 with one child are in fulltime employment. It drops to 58 per cent with two children. Whatever one might think of that, the accusation "old-fashioned" is hardly appropriate.

The French seem to have adopted a quality of life that encourages French women to feel legitimised when they enter the workforce. It might be that this has something to do simply with the way the French live. They certainly have a shorter working week than New Zealanders. Five or six weeks annual leave also helps.

France remains a country where family life is valued. In every village and small town, especially in the south, most shops close for a two-hour lunch; sometimes longer. Even in large cities like Toulouse, many shops close for an extended lunch hour.

Although this extended lunch hour is eroding, families still tend to come together during the lunch hour and again in the evening when very young children participate in family activities. The civilised custom of an aperitif with friends before the evening meal, and which can go on until quite late, will nearly always have children present.

It is this mix of ritual and child friendliness which gives French life much of its appeal. It tends to encourage a certain expectation of trust which just might, for example, be evident in the remaining frequent use of cheques in supermarkets although the severe punishment for fraud could be a deterrent.

The French are not old-fashioned at all but they are suspicious of the government when it tells parents how to treat their children. And it is this fear of unwarranted intrusion that I suspect is driving Bob McCoskrie and Family First. He would get considerable support in France.

The use of smacking as a disciplinary tool for young children is not old-fashioned at all. It is not an exercise in violence or an indicator of a lack of love. Indeed I suspect most French parents would claim the opposite.

To smack or not to smack is not the kind of non-issue that the Herald editorial seems to be claiming. Loving children and caring for them demands discipline and the smacking of young children must be something that parents are able to do without government manipulated guilt.

The loving and disciplining of children lies at the heart of a culture and reflects a complexity of issues. It is far too complex an issue to be monitored by a poorly designed law.

* Bruce Logan, a former teacher, is a conservative Christian who founded the Maxim Institute for social research.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The NZ Health Survey released today confirms that parents are not using smacking as a 'first measure', and the huge opposition to the anti-smacking law is not based on parents demanding the right to smack – it is based on simply the right to parent effectively and appropriately.

The government survey shows that less than a third of primary caregivers physically punished their child in the relatively small 4-week period before responding to the survey.

"Despite this being a very short 'snapshot' and therefore giving an inaccurate picture of the overall trend , it does confirm that parents are using a number of techniques, including smacking, to correct and train their children ," says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

" The figure of 48% of parents who admitted smacking in the Family First survey released last week was based on their actions over a whole year – that's a period 13 times larger than this survey period, so it's obviously far more likely that a parent will have used a smack as correction over that much longer period ."

"The survey also confirms what the international studies have shown – that the most effective use of smacking is for 2 to 6 year olds as a follow-up when the child is defiant and hasn't responded to other forms of correction. The vast majority of parents are using it appropriately," says Mr McCoskrie.

"The overwhelming opposition to the anti-smacking law has never been based on demanding the right to smack or the right to smack every time a child misbehaves. This is how the anti-smacking lobby group has attempted to paint it."

" The continued and in fact growing opposition to the law is based on the important role of parents, and their ability to parent their own child in a way that is reasonable and effective . The opposition to the anti-smacking law would be just as great if there was a proposed law to ban 'time-out' because it was argued to be a form of isolation and led to separation anxiety!"

This survey confirms that parents are doing a great job and deserve the right to parent in a reasonable and effective way without being criminalised for their actions, and subject to potential investigation from CYF, police, and schools. ENDS

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

The majority of Poles are in favour of a legal ban on hitting children, but at the same time they don't see anything wrong in an occasional smack, a poll published in Rzeczpospolita reveals.

The daily writes that the shocking news of child abuse that have recently shaken Polish public opinion and the government's declarations that spanking children will be prohibited, have little influence over parents' convictions. The daily reminds that in 1990 the Council of Europe demanded that Poland introduce relevant regulations to Polish law.

The Polish National Health Fund is to be abolished, Gazeta Prawna informs. The government wants to divide the central institution into several regional organisations. The decentralisation of the Fund is to end in introducing private health insurance institutions in 2012. In that way, as the Health Minister explains, the health care market will become more competitive as the patients will be able to choose were to pay their money for treatments.

Nasz Dziennik writes that the new Czech health care law is likely to cause Polish-Czech abortion tourism. The new regulations in the Czech Republic provide for almost unlimited access to the procedure of abortion for all foreign women. According to the daily, this situation will weaken the very strict Polish anti-abortion law, as the Polish women will be able to legally end pregnancies in the neighbouring country.

Can't find the poll that this information has been taken from - but the Poles have it right, "hitting and smacking are two different things entirely".

The majority of Poles are in favour of a legal ban on hitting children, but at the same time they don't see anything wrong in an occasional smack, a poll published in Rzeczpospolita reveals.

The daily writes that the shocking news of child abuse that have recently shaken Polish public opinion and the government's declarations that spanking children will be prohibited, have little influence over parents' convictions. The daily reminds that in 1990 the Council of Europe demanded that Poland introduce relevant regulations to Polish law.

The Polish National Health Fund is to be abolished, Gazeta Prawna informs. The government wants to divide the central institution into several regional organisations. The decentralisation of the Fund is to end in introducing private health insurance institutions in 2012. In that way, as the Health Minister explains, the health care market will become more competitive as the patients will be able to choose were to pay their money for treatments.

Nasz Dziennik writes that the new Czech health care law is likely to cause Polish-Czech abortion tourism. The new regulations in the Czech Republic provide for almost unlimited access to the procedure of abortion for all foreign women. According to the daily, this situation will weaken the very strict Polish anti-abortion law, as the Polish women will be able to legally end pregnancies in the neighbouring country.

Can't find the poll that this information has been taken from - but the Poles have it right, "hitting and smacking are two different things entirely".

Currently 17% of voters think that the law should stay - and 79% think that the law should not stay. This has been my experience when out on the street collecting signatures for the petition asking "should a smack be a criminal offence". 90% or more of those I speak to are opposed to the law, and more than happy to sign the petition.